On Friday May 17 in the morning, police officers shot dead a man armed with a knife who was trying to set fire to a synagogue in Rouen and was threatening them, announced the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
Around 6:45 a.m., the police were intervened following“a smoke signal near the synagogue”located rue des Bons-Enfants, in the historic center of Rouen, according to a police source cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP). “An individual set fire to the Rouen synagogue. He would have attacked the police and firefighters”For his part, the Rouen public prosecutor, Frédéric Teillet, declared to AFP.
“In Rouen, national police officers neutralized early this morning an armed individual intending to demonstrate and set fire to the city’s synagogue. I congratulate them for their responsiveness and courage”wrote Mr. Darmanin on.
A first investigation, entrusted to the General Directorate of the National Police (DGPN), was opened for “arson” of a place of worship, “intentional violence against persons holding public authority,” said the prosecution. A second, from the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), concerns the circumstances of the death of the armed individual for “intentional violence with weapons leading to death without intention of causing it”.
The man killed by the police was not immediately identified, a police source said. Contacted by The worldthe National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) announced that a ” assessment “ was ongoing, as is generally the case in this type of case.
The classification of acts of this nature as terrorist is far from automatic. The penal code provides, in fact, for an aggravation of the penalties encouraged when a crime is committed “due to the victim’s belonging to an ethnic group, nation or religion”.
The fact of committing a crime or offense for religious reasons – whether it is an attack against material property or against people – is therefore not enough to legally characterize a terrorist attack. Several criteria are analyzed by the PNAT to decide on its referral: the profile of the author (is it known from the specialized documentation?), his motivations, his ideological impregnation, his possible psychological fragilities and, finally, the existence or not a claim aimed at associating his act with an ideology or a terrorist group.
” Shocked “
Many firefighters and police officers were deployed on site Friday morning, noted an AFP journalist.
According to the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the firefighters had the fire under control on Friday morning and there would be no “no victims other than the armed individual”. “Through this attack and this attempted fire on the Rouen synagogue, it is not only the Jewish community that is affected. The entire city of Rouen is bruised and in shock”he writes on.
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For the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi, “once again, this act aims to install a climate of terror among the Jews of France”. He denounces a “gravity rise” anti-Semitic acts after the inscription of around twenty red hands, a controversial symbol brandished for a time in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, on the night of May 13 to 14, on the Wall of the Righteous, outside the Shoah Memorial, in Paris. “Anti-Semitism always responds to a mimicry and ripple effect; attacking a synagogue is attacking the most visible symbol of the presence of Jews in society; to set it on fire is to want to obscure our presence. »
Elie Korchia, president of the Central Consistory, is expected in Rouen in the morning. “In the climate of exacerbated anti-Semitism that we have been experiencing for several months, this very serious and quite unique act creates a feeling of great concern. But we are also relieved to see how quickly and efficiently the police intervened thanks to the security measures put in place recently”he reacted.
On April 14, Gérald Darmanin asked prefects to strengthen security in front of Jewish places of worship as well as in front of religious schools, the day after the attack led by Iran against Israel.
Military operations launched by the Jewish state in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the attack by Hamas fighters on October 7 have caused a sharp increase in acts of anti-Semitism in France. At the beginning of May, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced that “366 anti-Semitic facts” Had been recorded in the first quarter of 2024, i.e. “an increase of 300% compared to the first three months of 2023”.
Faced with this increase, “no act should go unpunished, no anti-Semite should have peace of mind”had affirmed the head of government, promising to “demonstrate exemplary firmness in every action”.
